October. For most other cities, it was a festive month during the peak of Autumn, for people to enjoy themselves, from children trick or treating to adults hosting elaborate costume parties. But Rottenheim wasn’t like most other cities. Every self-respecting supervillain enjoyed a month of devilish pranks and wicked cheers, and for a city overrun with them, one could see how that would be a problem. Ironically, the only villain who didn’t seem that interested in the festivities of the month was the Mastermind, Rottenheim’s top villain, though not the first one.
At the front door of his lair, a peculiar character with a burlap sack over his head was repeatedly ringing the doorbell, holding another bag in his free hand. Eventually, the door was answered by Marcus, who just looked at the individual up and down. “Uh, can I help you?” he asked.
“Trick or treat, mate!” the man spoke, holding up his sack to the minion.
“Aren’t you a little old for that, dude?” Marcus questioned.
“I, uh… Well, you should always be a kid at heart!” he said with a forced grin, which only added to the Magman’s confusion. After an awkward pause, the crook relented and pulled a knife out of his trick-or-treat bag. “Okay, fine, I’m here to take out the Mastermind. I’m the Shanker! Take me to ‘im if ya don’t wanna get shanked!”
“I got lava powers.” Marcus explained.
“...Bugger.”
Back inside, within one of the basements of the lair, the Mastermind was busy rummaging through stuff, tossing it aside for Claire to catch before it could break. Ellen was helping with this as well, though with only one of her shadowy hands, putting in much less effort. As they did this, the sound of a British man’s pained and terrifying screams over a wave of magma were heard from the outside, followed by remorseful, panicked shouting from another man. Minutes later, Marcus returned to the group, shutting the door behind him in fright.
“Hey, was that the Shanker?” Ellen asked. “We’re mutuals online.”
“Uh… Probably not anymore…” Marcus said as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, dodging around her as he went to join in.
“Just get a move on, you three!” the Mastermind barked as he started shoving the old junk into their arms. “We’ll be rolling in enough dough to fund the ultimate world-conquering weapon in no time!”
“Or you could raise our salaries.” remarked Ellen.
“Hah! Good one.” he remarked back, forming a deadpan frown on her face.
Marcus quickly put on his heat proof gloves and joined his fellow minions in moving the old junk from the previous rulers out of his lair. While the Mastermind just barreled through everything with brute force, his lackeys were a bit more careful in their approach, carrying out anything from old, defunct weapons, to worn out supervillain costumes, to a piece of moldy cheesecake that was there for who knows how long.
While she was already perturbed by her work, Claire eventually moved some old cloths out of the way, revealing something that made her jump back and yelp in fright.
At first, the Mastermind thought nothing of what his lackey uncovered. But after only a minute of looking it over, something finally caught his evil eye. “I don’t believe it…” he said. “This is what I’ve been waiting for… A vessel of pure evil!”
He then proceeded to disregard the massive painting, snatching the spider dangling from it in his claws while pushing it aside.
“Yes, such a peculiarly tiny creature, yet it invokes such… terrifying inspiration within me.” the Mastermind said poetically.
“Have you seriously never seen a spider before?” Ellen remarked.
“A spider, yes! Arachnophobia! This magnificent pest has just given me a new plan to dominate your pitiful world!” the Mastermind announced, holding the arachnid up high. He let out a sinister laugh while Ellen just rolled her eyes and walked back over to the painting.
“So, what about this?” Marcus asked as he looked over the portrait, leaning in to look at the writing on its frame. “‘Meliza… Burnwood… The first top villain of Rottenheim.’ Woah…”
“Certainly looks the part.” Ellen commented.
“Guess I should be glad I’m not working for her, at least.” Claire added, taking a second to think it over. “Well-”
Before she could come to any conclusion, her current boss appeared beside them to lift up the portrait himself, looking over it without looking impressed.
“Oh yeah, that’s some old bag that was the first villain ruling Rottenheim or something, no one’s gonna want this.” the Mastermind said as he handed off the painting to his robotic maid. “E.M.I.L.Y., take it to the trash where it belongs.”
“On it, chief.” E.M.I.L.Y. said as she rolled away with it.
And so, that’s exactly where the painting ended up, in the dumpster behind the Mastermind’s lair, with no one thinking any more of it. But they all failed to realize the expression on Meliza’s face had changed from villainous delight to sour rage. As it sat in the garbage, an ominous blue glow started to pulse from the painting, accompanied by a wicked cackle, signaling doom for everyone inside.
Later that evening, as the Mastermind was busy concocting a new scheme with his arachnid acquaintance, the three minions were busy being put to work searching for something of value through the junk they had unearthed. Not that they were having much luck.
“How much you think we could get for this?” Marcus asked as he held up a latex suit that had clearly been stretched out by its previous user. The two ladies just looked it over, a wave of disgust coming over them.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of ‘Hayfever Man’ fans in this day and age.” Ellen remarked as she went back to her search.
As they continued scouring through the pile of old objects, they failed to notice a turquoise aura emerging from the vents in the room, slowly taking on a more humanoid form. It glanced around the room, eyeing up the three minions, searching for whichever one would make the most suitable host. It took a liking toward Marcus - in more ways than one - as a clearly masculine machine of destructive power. One that was trying to be as delicate as possible to avoid melting any of the items he was tasked with preserving.
This presence didn’t go unnoticed for long, as Marcus’ eyes shifted up when he felt a cold chill in the air, something that was unusual for him.
“Uuhhhh… Guys?” Marcus began, pointing up toward the aura to see if his fellow lackeys saw it as well. But he wasn’t quick enough, as it suddenly lunged toward him, phasing into his body without much struggle. His body began to jerk around as his eyes glowed a bright blue, spilling drops of lava all over the place.
Claire glanced over, seeing the Magman’s strange condition, and nervously nudging on Ellen to notice. Marcus eventually punched the wall, causing magma to burn through, which was enough for the shadow woman to finally turn away from her phone.
“Marcus, you okay…?” Ellen asked, resulting in him slowly turning around.
“Marcus isn’t here right now…” an eerie, feminine voice spoke from his body.
Suddenly, he turned around, raising his hand and causing spectral energy to fill the room as everything else went dark, much to both ladies’ shock. They looked back to see their cohort having formed a fountain of lava from his hand, glaring back at them with a crooked smile, and his eyes glowing a bright blue, which was when they knew for certain something was wrong.
“I am Meliza Burnwood, the first supervillain who ruled the roost of Rottenheim, and your dear Marcus is GOONNNE!!!” the spirit announced dramatically from the Magman’s body. “Okay, not technically gone, but I’m in control now, is what I’m trying to say.”
“Cool, cool…” Claire said. “Um, could you please get out of his body…?”
“Not until I settle some business I got with your boss!” she continued. “That mediocre Mastermind doesn’t deserve to run this city, and one way or another I’m reclaiming my throne!”
With that proclamation, Marcus’ possessed body threw out a punch, shooting a stream of lava at the two of them. Ellen ducked down into her own shadow to avoid it while Claire put up a force field to protect herself. She then converted that into a bubble to contain the magma within, trying not to make more of a mess than there already was, but this gave the ghost an opportunity to walk right up and smack her with Marcus’ arm, knocking her against the wall.
“Sorry, ladies! But I got a rendezvous to-” Meliza began, but as she took a step in her new body, a pool of lava suddenly formed around her boot. Suddenly she found herself trying to trudge through it and stumbled around as it started to eat away at the floor, tripping over it as she finally made it out into the hallway, which the Mastermind could hear from rooms away.
“MARCUS! THERE BETTER NOT BE ANY MORE LAVA SPILLS IN THERE!” the Mastermind barked.
“Well, this body ain’t it! The guy’s a walking fire hazard!” Meliza grumbled to herself.
Before they could make their next move, a pair of shadowy arms suddenly emerged from the floor, wrapping around Marcus’ shoulders and yanking them back into the room to be thrown against a wall.
Claire had managed to recover and, thinking quickly, used her powers to telekinetically rip some of the lava-proofing the Mastermind had installed into his base, wrapping the sheets around the Magman and lifting him into the air. His body tried to struggle free to no avail, leaving her to let out a sigh of relief.
“Okay, I got him.” said Claire, before immediately questioning herself and turning to Ellen. “Her? Them?”
“Don’t look at me, possession pronouns are a new one.” said the shadow woman.
Now trapped within Claire’s psychic bind, Meliza glanced around, seeing potential with the psychic. “Y’know, dearie, you didn’t look like much, but this power of yours is pretty neat!” the ghost exclaimed. “You clearly got talent with it, too.”
“Oh! Well, thank you!” said Claire, taken aback by the original top villain actually complimenting her. “I mean, I’m still working on it, you know…”
“Well, you already got some potential! In fact, I should probably be possessing you if I wanna do this right!” she exclaimed further.
Claire dropped the gratitude, her eyes suddenly growing wide as she realized what she stumbled into. “Uh… Now hold on-”
Before she could do anything about it, the spirit left Marcus’ body and phased through Claire’s barrier, shooting straight into her body instead. Marcus dropped straight to the floor as Claire’s powers were redirected, a ghostly wail emitting from her as the spirit took hold. The remaining two minions just watched on in horror as the possession finally took place.
Now with full control of Claire’s body, Meliza gave her abilities a test drive, raising her hand and telekinetically raising the bookshelf, dropping it onto the both of them. She looked down at her new host’s hands as she levitated off the ground, cackling to herself.
“Oh yeah, THIS is more like it!” she exclaimed. “Time to show that ‘Mastermind’ what a real villain looks like!”
“Oh! Sure, I’m not good enough for you to possess, huh?” Ellen shouted as Claire’s body flew off. “Fine! Not the first time I’ve been left out!”
Marcus groaned as he came to, sitting up and rubbing his aching head. “Man, I just had the weirdest dream…” he said before his eyes shot wide open at the site of lava having wrecked the hallway. “GAH! What’d I do?!”
“Come on, we gotta take down Claire before she kills the boss.” Ellen explained, pointing toward the direction she had flown off.
“...Claire?!”
“I’ll explain as we move.”
Meanwhile, in the kitchen of the lair, the Mastermind had just finished setting up a series of tests to study his new subject, the spider from the basement. Taking out a clipboard and pen, he set up a series of obstacles on the table, ready to take as many notes as he could fit onto the page.
“Alright, you eight-legged enigma of evil, let’s see what makes you so terrifying to so many people.” the Mastermind said as he set the arachnid onto the kitchen table, preparing to study it inside and out. “Your first task is to strike fear into the hearts of those flies, your natural prey!”
The conqueror pointed toward a terrarium of buzzing flies. The spider seemed not to be hungry, as it just stood there, showing no interest in them. The Mastermind just stared, waiting for something to happen, but quickly grew impatient.
“Alright, we’ll come back to that one.” he relented, shoving the flies aside and placing down a model of a person in their bed. “Here! A helpless victim, ready to be disturbed in the night by your malicious presence! Have at it!”
Again, the Mastermind waited, and this time the spider crawled onto the props, much to his delight. It was quickly dashed though as it just stood there, not doing anything to attack, instead just cleaning itself with its front legs. Once again, the Mastermind just looked at the arachnid with disappointment on his face.
“Okay, you gotta give me something to work with here.” the Mastermind said, growing a little frustrated at the lack of results, and being too fixated on his subject to notice a ghostly presence levitating various dangerous items off the ground behind him.
Before she could unleash any of her wrath upon the Mastermind, Ellen’s shadowy arms had reached and wrapped around her fellow lackey’s possessed body, dragging her out of the kitchen and causing all the tools to drop to the floor. The Mastermind looked back, seeing them scattered around… and simply shrugged it off, returning to his studies.
Several rooms away, Ellen was using all of her strength and focus to wrap her shadow limbs around Claire’s body, restraining her and the spirit within it to a chair. The spirit was putting up a struggle to break free, much more than the shadow woman expected from someone in Claire’s body.
“You sure this’ll work?” Ellen asked as she was struggling to keep Claire’s body restrained.
“I think so? I mean, I’ve seen this all the time in movies.” Marcus said as he held up a cross made of popsicle sticks and tape. He then pressed the cross against Claire’s forehead while looking through a book with another. “Um… Spirit, by the power of… whatever power’s above us… I cast thee out of this mortal body! Return to whence you came!”
Through Claire’s body, the ghost of Meliza just stared back at him, unfazed and unimpressed. Still, Marcus pressed on, trying to think of more ritualistic phrases to say.
“I said return to whence you came!” he prodded. “Cast thyself away from the world of the living! …Pretty please with a cherry on top?”
“You gotta be an actual priest for this to work.” Meliza explained. “Are churches still wrecked in this town?”
“............No?” Marcus answered after a lengthy pause.
“You hesitated too much, she knows you’re bluffing.” said Ellen.
Indeed she did, and after wriggling her arms free, she clenched her fist, shattering the stitched together cross with her new psychic powers. This was followed by her taking the book and using it to strike Marcus on the back of his head, knocking him to the ground.
Ellen was next to face her wrath, being forced off of the ground and flown against the wall, where she saved herself by forming into a shadow that started to move along the surface. She swiftly moved onto the floor, shooting out a wave of dark claws to ensnare the possessed psychic again. This time wasn’t as successful as she put up a force field, effectively blocking her out.
“You goons are just wasting my time, just like my own minions when I was alive!” Meliza exclaimed, forcing the door open with her host’s mind. “Must be treating you pretty well if you’re putting your lives on the line for him like this!”
“Ah… Well, not really, no.” Marcus admitted.
“...Then why-?”
“Limited on work and want money.” Ellen answered.
“Ah. Well, either way, you goons are joining me now!”
“I don’t know if this is really a transferable job-” Marcus said before looking back, seeing many of the Mastermind’s hidden weapons suddenly floating out of their hiding places and aiming themselves at the two minions. “Oh, join you like that, I get it now…”
The Magman punched the ground, shooting out a stream of lava that melted some of the tools as they came flying toward him, leaving them rather ineffective once they hit. Deciding not to waste her time any further, the possessed psychic simply took off and flew down the hallway back toward her target, with the two minions giving chase.
All the while, the Mastermind was still focusing on his spider, growing more and more frustrated with the lack of progress in his research.
“KEEP IT DOWN BACK THERE!” he shouted without fully turning around to see the chaos. “Now, come on, I just need you to relay the tiniest bit of fear! Pretty please? Assuming you don’t want to get squashed!”
His threat didn’t go through to the bug, with it instead just turning around to continue cleaning itself.
“Oh, don’t you turn your abdomen to me, buster!”
The two minions continued chasing their possessed friend as she flew down the hallway, with the ghost inside doing everything within her newfound power to ward them off her. As they chased, they found themselves constantly dodging and deflecting telekinetically-flung objects of all shapes, sizes, and deadliness.
Eventually, the possessed Claire found herself in a cramped, dusty room where E.M.I.L.Y. was busy vacuuming. She didn’t even turn away from her duties to acknowledge something off about Claire, only having her attention caught when the other two ran in after her.
“E.M.I.L.Y., get the door!” Marcus exclaimed.
“Alright, calm down!” she said as she converted her hand into a remote. “You guys are acting like you seen a ghost.”
The door slammed shut through the robot maid’s signal, locking everyone inside, and leaving Meliza cornered.
“Alright, you old bag, un-possess her and go back to the… graveyard or wherever the hell you came from.” said Ellen, forming her shadow hands into clubs.
“Or what? Not much you can do to me without hurting your little friend!” Meliza remarked with a cackle.
After pausing for a second, Marcus noticed the lava forming around his clenched fists, and turned to Ellen. “She’s kinda got a point there.”
“Well yeah, but not like she can do any good in here, body or not.” Ellen taunted, feeling confident in herself.
“I’m completely lost on what’s going on here and I’d like to keep it that way.” E.M.I.L.Y. remarked as she returned to her magazines.
The ghost knew that she was right, but unfortunately for Ellen, she had just given her a wicked idea. “Well, not this body anyway!”
A blinding light suddenly burst from Claire’s face as the spirit left her, leaving her to flop onto the ground with a strained groan. Ellen’s eyes widened in fear as the ghost suddenly forced herself into her for another painful possession. With a new host in tow, she wrapped a shadowy limb around Claire and engulfed her, just as she was about to come to, yelping as this happened.
Taking the form of a shadow, she then slipped through the tight cracks of the door, leaving Marcus to stand there dumbfounded. On the other side, she returned Ellen to her form and dropped Claire onto the ground, immediately leaving to possess the psychic once more.
“Nothing personal, hon, just prefer the mind powers.” Meliza said as she flew off. “Now, back to business!”
With a wicked cackle, she flew off once more, leaving Ellen to stand there in shock, processing what had just happened to her. “...Well at least I don’t feel left out anymore.”
Suddenly, the door was melted through by a blast of lava, with Marcus emerging from it, forgetting he could’ve just had E.M.I.L.Y. unlock it. In his panic, he looked around before fixing on Ellen. “Gotcha!” he shouted as he leaped toward her, only for her to shift out of his way. “Hey! Get back here!”
“Marcus! She’s not in me you twit!” she shouted right before she got grabbed by the collar of her shirt.
“Oh yeah? Well that’s exactly what a possessed person would say!” Marcus said as he held up a new, even more shoddily-made cross out of spare machine parts, holding it up to her face. “Okay, let’s try this again: Spirit, begone from this mortal-”
Smack.
Having none of it, Ellen just lightly slapped her cohort on the cheek, which was enough for him to realize his mistake and set her down.
“Sorry, Ellen.”
“No worries, let’s just go.”
“Right.” He relented and set her down gently.
“Oooh, what do we got here?” Meliza’s voice rang from the living room quarters, catching their attention.
Without any haste, the shadow woman and lava man arrived in the quarters, stopping to see the possessed psychic had come across a hidden bunker of alien weaponry. With a wide, crooked grin, ear to ear, Meliza used her host’s powers to lift as many as she could.
“Guess I should make sure these babies work first.” she said sinisterly, turning around to aim them all at her opponents. “AND I KNOW JUST HOW TO DO SO!”
“Oh, bloody hell…” Ellen groaned before she was forced to dodge a variety of energy blasts being launched her way.
Marcus stomped the ground, causing a wall of solidified magma to shoot out of the floor, taking the brunt of the assault but chipping off some chunks in the process. Seeing his defense wouldn’t last long, he leaped to hide behind the couch instead, hoping she didn’t see him do so.
“Okay, Marcus, you can do this, you’re hurting the ghost, not Claire…” Marcus whispered in an attempt to psyche himself up. As he was doing so, he noticed a cleaver hovering above the sofa, swinging down to cleanly slice it in half, which he barely avoided as he stumbled backwards. It floated up again, aiming to chop the Magman’s head off, only for him to coat his hand in lava and catch it, easily melting it away.
Ellen sank down into a shadow on the floor, avoiding her possessed cohort’s assault as best as she could. As Marcus ran around frantically while being shot and slashed at, Ellen’s shadowy arms emerged from the ground to grab and swat away any weapons in their path. Meliza just used her host’s powers to conjure another forcefield, deflecting direct assaults from both minions with ease, though she was starting to feel a strain at this point.
Meanwhile, the Mastermind still wasn’t paying any attention as he was engrossed in his studies, this time trying to listen for any threatening sounds from the spider with a pair of noise-canceling earphones.
Now having psyched himself up, Marcus managed to get behind the spirit, forming a geyser of lava in his hands and muttering “Sorry, Claire…” before firing it off at her. She simply turned around and held out her hand, collecting the lava in a telekinetic bubble. This was what he wanted, however, as he clamped his hands together, causing it to burst, the psychic pressure both knocking its host back and getting drops of magma all over the room.
While Claire’s body dropped to the floor, the ghost inside was unrelenting, forcing her to float back to her feet as Marcus began to approach. He hesitated, looking her over to make sure there weren’t any third-degree burns, which gave the spirit an opportunity to strike back. Suddenly, the floor beneath Marcus’ feet began to be ripped from the ground by her psychic powers. Quickly losing his balance, Meliza used her new powers to take a more blunt weapon, striking the Magman to the ground with a blow to his chest, dazing him for a few seconds. This was more than enough time for him to powerlessly be levitated off the ground, all while the ghost sinisterly grinned back at him from the vessel of his fellow lackey.
“It’s such a shame your master isn’t around to witness you dying on his behalf! But such is the fate of lowly minions like the two of you!” Meliza gloated. It was here that a relization dawned on her. “Oh, yeah, there were two of you… Wait, where’s the other one-?”
Suddenly, her body’s own shadow sprung to life with a fist that knocked her on the back of the head. She dropped to the floor, with Marcus falling shortly after as Ellen emerged from her shadowy form.
“Pin her down, quick!” the shadow woman shouted. Marcus complied as she quickly wrapped her shadow arms around her, binding her once more, this time with her powers being too strained to resist.
“Maybe I should’ve stuck with the shadow bi-”
“Well, too late now!” she remarked as she pinned her down harder.
“Alright, third time’s the charm.” Marcus said as he looked at his lava-coated hands, seeing his third makeshift cross destroyed within them. “Oh… oops.”
“Whatever, not like it worked the first two…” said Ellen, cutting herself off when she turned and saw her boss finally leaving the kitchen and entering the room, disappointed at the lack of results from the bug.
“Well, that was a bust.” the Mastermind complained. “But, know I have some knowledge that should aid… in… in…”
“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED IN HERE!?” the Mastermind furiously bellowed. “CAN I NOT TAKE MY EYES OFF YOU IMBECILES FOR TWO SECONDS WITHOUT MY LAIR BEING DESTROYED?!”
“You’ve been studying that stupid spider for like, three hours.” Ellen pointed out, though her boss was having none of it.
“THAT’S BESIDE THE POINT!”
As the Mastermind was busy berating his lackeys, Meliza watched them taking every volatile word he spat at them on their chins as best they could. This caused some unfamiliar emotions to build up within the restless spirit, ones she had not experienced with her own minions when she was alive.
“Now wait just a second, buster, you think you got the right to get off on them like that?!” Meliza exclaimed. With those words coming from Claire’s mouth, the conqueror could only stare back in disbelief.
“What did you just-?” the Mastermind began, only to be swiftly interrupted.
“These goons of yours have been risking their lives to save yours while you were just sitting around and you have the audacity to scold them for it?” Meliza argued. “Is this how you treat all of your minions?!”
“Yeah, pretty much.” Ellen remarked.
“Unbelievable! This is so thoughtless that I… I’m impressed…” Meliza spoke, her anger turning to awe as she stared back down at the Mastermind.
“Huh?” was all the alien could say, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
“At first I thought you weren’t malicious enough to do the title of Rottenheim’s top villain justice - so to speak, of course. But now I see you’re as rotten as they come!” the spirit complimented, much to his delighted surprise. “Truly no one is more worthy of running this town into the ground!”
“Finally, Claire, you’re starting to get it!” the Mastermind gleefully rejoiced. “Take notes, you two!”
“And I think the only way to be as great a villain as you would be to take your body as my own!” she continued.
“That’s right, Cla… uh… wait, what?”
Meliza’s spirit finally jumped out of Claire’s body, causing her to fall unconscious onto the floor. The Mastermind jumped back in shock at the frightening sight before him, with the ghost taking form and cackling like a lunatic before lunging right as him. The Mastermind gawked and ducked just before it could make contact, causing it to fly over him and inhabit a different host, signified by an eruption of eerie light.
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” exclaimed the Mastermind.
“Ugh… What happened…?” Claire groaned as she sat up. Her eyes then shot wide open as she noticed Ellen was pinning her down, followed by her noticing the shambles the lair was in. “What happened?!”
“Wait, where’d she go?” Marcus asked as he stood up, looking around frantically as he held onto himself, trying not to get possessed again.
“Down here. In the spider.” Meliza’s voice suddenly rang out, drawing everyone’s attention to a tiny arachnid that was now possessed. “Just give me a second and I’ll give that another try-”
“Yeah I don’t think so.” Ellen stated as she slammed a glass on top of the spider, sliding a plate underneath.
“NOOO! GLASS! HOW DID YOU KNOW GHOSTS CAN’T PASS THROUGH GLASS?!”
“What?” said Ellen. “Uh, I mean, oh yeah, totally knew that, expert on ghosts here.”
“YOU LET ME OUT OF HERE THIS INSTANT! I REFUSE TO SPEND THE REST OF THIS PITIFUL ARACHNID’S LIFE TRAPPED INSIDE IT! THIS IS NO FATE FOR ME, YOU HEAR?! NO FATE!”
As Meliza continued to angrily rant, the four of them just stared back at her, until the Mastermind turned away to look at Claire.
“So, uh… All that stuff you were saying about me being a great villain and… respecting evil… That wasn’t just her, right?” he questioned.
“...I don’t even remember what…” Claire began to answer. She was interrupted when she suddenly coughed up some ectoplasmic slime, much to her disgust and horror. “H-how long has she been in me?”
“Not long enough, clearly…” the conqueror said, disappointedly.
“So what do we do with her?” Marcus finally asked.
The Mastermind paused to think this over. Soon after, a wicked grin formed on his face as he picked up the contained spirit. “You know, I wasn’t having much luck studying fear from just an ordinary spider… But a spider possessed by the undead… Now I might have something…”
The Mastermind chuckled to himself as he pushed aside his lackeys, preparing for a new endeavor.
Only a day later, and the Mastermind had managed to work out an agreement with Meliza and her new, spidery form. On the night of Halloween proper, a band of heavily-costumed supervillains walked right up to the Mastermind’s lair, being caught on the front door’s cameras as they looked straight into it.
“Let us purge you, Mastermind, just as all the other sinful people of this town have!” the leader demanded. “Under our rule we shall bring villainy back to its purest form!”
In response to this, a trap door opened up in front of the purging group, and from it a platform emerged with a single spider on it. At first, they just stared, processing what they were seeing. Then their confusion turned to a gut-wrenching roar of laughter. Then that turned into terrified shrieks as the ghost of Meliza Burnwood emerged from the arachnid, causing them to run away for fear of their lives.
Meliza returned to her host, taking the elevator back into the living quarters, where the Mastermind was gleefully cackling. She was placed back inside a terrarium, where she was rewarded with warm tea and charbroiled flies.
“Well, it’s a living.” Meliza said as she continued her new job of unleashing terror on any villains who came her way.
“So are we actually just replaced now?” Marcus asked. “By a spider…?”
“Not if I got anything to say about it.” Ellen remarked as she held up a flyswatter.
“Isn’t that straight-up murder?!” Claire interjected.
“...She’s already dead, Claire.”
Thus, Ellen began biding her time for the perfect opportunity to carry out her heinous deed. And that’s the end of this story. There was no moral learned or any further development.
…Happy Halloween everyone.